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Archives for: December 2007

Can you re-illiterate this?

by loiswakeman @ 18 Dec. 2007 - 15:13:36

"Technical Author - Contract

Based in Farnborough we are currently recruiting for a technical author who has had experience using Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Illustrator and FrameMaker. Candidates responding to this position will require full understanding of product development life cycle, the ability to re-illiterate technical documentations into basic documents for less technical body's to understand and have experience writing manuals and user guides for mobile phone products." - job ad on JobServe

What a joy - not only a greengrocer's apostrophe, but a neologism that means the exact opposite of what was presumably meant. For Christmas presents there's Mastercard - but re-illiterate: priceless!

They weren't joking when they said they needed a TA!

Thanks to my chum Steve Rickaby for finding this.

Things aren’t always what they seem...

by loiswakeman @ 11 Dec. 2007 - 18:10:17

amazonI was about to get all hot under the collar when I spotted this pricing on the Amazon web site last Friday!

Did it fool you? Of course, an ‘8’ with a strikethrough looks very like a ‘0’ with a strikethrough at normal screen resolution. Perhaps that’s why, in the good old days, zeroes used to have a diagonal line across them so you could tell the difference. Ah, the days of punched cards and teletypes.

Chorus in the background of "What are you on about, old person?" ;)

The Caps Lock is the one at the left of the keyboard

by loiswakeman @ 05 Dec. 2007 - 18:10:20

From: Mrs Suzzy Howard [suzzyhoward214@mychurch.com]
Subject: I AWAITS YOUR RESPONSE AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVED MESSAGE

HELLO DEAR BELOVED ONE,

GREETINGS TO YOU IN THE NAME OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST.I AM MRS SUZZY HOWARD. A WIDOW TO LATE CARY HOWARD.I AM 58 YEARS OLD. I AM NOW ANEW CHRISTAIN CONVERT, SUFFERING FROM LONG TIME CANCER OF THE BREAST.

FROM ALL INDICATIONS, MY CONDITION IS REALLY DETERIORATING AND IT IS QUITE OBVIOUS THAT I WON'T LIVE MORE THAN 2 MONTHS ACCORDING TO MY DOCTORS.THIS IS BECAUSE THE CANCER STAGE HAS GOTTEN TO A VERY BAD STAGE. MY LATE HUSBAND WAS KILLED DURING THE U.S. RAID AGAINST TERRORISM IN AFGHANISTAN, AND DURING THE PERIOD OF OUR MARRIAGE WE COULD'NT PRODUCE ANY CHILD.

MY LATE HUSBAND WAS VERY WEALTHY AND AFTER HIS DEATH,I INHERITED ALL HIS BUSINESS AND WEALTH. THE DOCTORS HAS ADVISED ME THAT I MAY NOT LIVE FOR MORE THAN 2 MONTHS,SO I NOW DECIDED TO DIVIDE PART OF THIS WEALTH TO CONTRIBUTE TO THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE CHURCH IN AFRICA, AMERICA,ASIA AND EUROPE.

I AM WILLING TO DONATE THE SUM OF $5,000.000.00 USD STATES DOLLARS TO THE LESS PRIVILEGED.

PLEASE I WANT YOU NOTE THAT THIS FUND IS LYING DOWN AT A BANK IN AFRICA. I WISH YOU CAN FOLLOW UP AND CLAIM IT FOR MY PURPOSE AND ACT AS I MAY ADVICE YOU.

I HONESTLY PRAY THAT THIS MONEY WHEN TRANSFERRED TO YOU WILL SURE BE UTILIZED FOR THE SAID PURPOSE, BECAUSE I HAVE COME TO FIND OUT THAT WEALTH ACQUISITION WITHOUT CHRIST IS VANITY. MAY THE GRACE OF OUR LORD JESUS,THE LOVE OF GOD AND THE FELLOWSHIP OF GOD BE WITH YOU AND YOUR FAMILY.

I AWAITS YOUR RESPONSE AS SOON AS YOU RECEIVED MESSAGE.

YOUR SISTER IN CHRIST
MRS.SUZZY HOWARD

Ms Howard (if such she is) is not only too thick to locate the Caps Lock, but her carefully crafted combination of mangled English, and nauseating appeals to my Christianity, compassion and (anti-?)American  patriotism, is an immediate turn-off. I sincerely wish her (or him) a long slow death from the imaginary disease described above. Or perhaps God will strike her down with a thunderbolt. But I expect he's too busy worrying about blasphemous teddies.

I cannot understand how anyone would be taken in by this gross rubbish! I even got a similar hard luck tale though the post the other day. At least they wasted a stamp rather than my time deleting emails.